Well its the next morning and I still want to slap Steve Walsh with a well worn rugby sock. I wont complain about the try that wasnt given (it was a try) but he still should have gone back for the penalty.
Also, whats with George North deliberately slapping the ball into touch.....thats also a penalty! The knock on from Davies as he tackled Faz that he missed....I could go on.
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Wouldnt be so bad except Walsh is involved in soooo many poor, crucial decisions, a lot involving England. Whats he doing over here anyway, we had 2 NH teams playing, why do we need an Aussie/Kiwi George Michael impersonator?
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Good, I feel better now!

I agree that Flood would have struggled with the conversion but why was the play not brought back after Strett's 'try' when Walsh was playing advantage. All if's and but's I think.Bottom line is England have progressed massively are all playing together as a team and with pride. We are in a better place than for some years

The north slap into touch - did that go into touch in front of the corner flag; if it was in-goal isn't that an automatic Penatly try unless there is other defensive cover; which there wasn't

I also thought that a slap into touch in the red zone was an automatic yellow card. Which would have meant Stretts wuold have walked around under the posts for his try given the stretched cover, 2 moves later

Also the penatly that was given advantage on was the 2nd brought down maul in as many minutes; it was well formed, moving forward quickly, no welshmen in a position to interfere with the ball being grounded - a genuine candidate for a penalty try

I've been going to Twickenham for a few years now and I think it's safe to say that the atmosphere (and the general support for the team) was the best that I can recall since the November 2002 defeat of New Zealand.

I was sat a bit too close to the Taff who kept on doing the 'Oggy oggy oggy' shouting bit, what's that about?

Surely more anti-Walsh than Welsh; says she who has to be very careful living in North Wales and having an Osprey supporting builder, who I might say is extremely nice and whose stone and oak work is exceptional. No gloating from him this morning just a gentle smile. Mind, you don't know what they're saying when they're jabbering in Welsh.

Come on all, I know we lost but let's not be too blinkered here - we did great all things considered and only just lost against a very good Wales team. You can't blame Walsh or the TMO for not giving the 'try'. Walsh when immediately talking to the Ass't ref/touch judge said he thought it had been held up and so he rightly went to the TMO and ask if it was a try or no try. ALL the video we and the TMO saw indicated that the ball never touched the ground on or over the line - so it how could the TMO have given a try ??? Now should Walsh have then gone back for the penalty? Tricky because unless we say there is only advantage if a try is scored then we'd be constantly having to come back to penalties after advantage is played. What Walsh no doubt thought was that the fact a try was so nearly scored from a position where a try was a good possibility was advantage, especially when viewed against coming back to a penalty 5 metres out with the Welsh defence would all be re-organised. There would have been no time for a line out and a taking a scrum would have been risky as we all know the lottery of scrum collapse decisions.

In terms of George North, well the ref and Touch judges can only rule on what they see in real speed fomr a distance on the pitch. How many of us actually thought North had slapped it into touch at theat moment in time? I certainly didn't and it was only when the replays were shown that it looked like he may have (still not definate though IMO). Reffing is a hard job but we'd have no game without them and so let's not get into cirticising refs for things like this. Yes there are some bad decisions which meed analysing and refs brought to task by their referee management over them but Walsh and his officials did fine in my book re the 'try' and the 'slap into touch' for the reaosn I have just outlined.

Let's not be poor losers but look forward to the match in Paris - and not many of us would have thought we had a good chance there after the Scotland and Italy games!

i don't really have an issue with the Strettle try; he went to the video ref and thats all there is to it

I'm more concerned with the fact that Wales were well aware they could keep giving away penalties at the death and Walsh was never going to do anything about it.

There were around 4 penalty offences in the red zone in the last 5 minutes, all of which could / should have resulted in at least a "next time that happens its a penalty try / yellow card" but he didn't even do that. Just a smile and carry on England

In such circumstances the defending side simply can't keep offending and hope time runs out. If they repeatedly offend the ref must always come back for the offence and the only advantage allowed is an actual try being scored.

I know there is a sort of agreement that if it goes to the video ref then the penalty is finished, but i don't agree with it

For me the driving maul was the worst refereeing decision of all; he accepted it was a penalty offence, but I can't imagine how more well set England could have been for a penalty try. The only Welshman in sight was the one who brought it down and England had four or five players protecting the ball and they were already motoring forward

Rich. Look again from the right angle and you can see the ball grounded, momentarily before North intervenes.
Shane Williams confirms,and in no less an organ than this mornings Metro. He was behind the goal.

No matter, game over, and Wales deserved their win.

But that ref shouldnt be allowed out, and most certainly is unfit to ref at that level

Neville - I did see some video which I suspect might be that you are referring to which was taken from that side of the ground looking past the touch judge and the England trainer. I only saw it one but it did seem to indicate it was a try but (a) that video wasn't available to the TMO (he was watching what we were being shown at the time) and (b) I thought there was enough evidence with what we saw at the time to indicate he didn't score and so I would like to see that new footage again to see if it is clear that the ball was on/over the line (as he certainly grounded it before the line before he continued).

I'll check on youtube - but my main issue above was that the Ref and TMO could not be blamed for not awarding the try. I personally rather hope he didn't actually score as I've had enough of England not getting the benefit of the doubt in crucial decision (e.g. Cueoto in RWC final and countless footy decisions), and I don't want to develop any sort of chip!

The footage I saw at the time, and I believe was the footage the TMO was watching, showed an angle from behind the line where Stretts appeared to touch the ball down over his shoulder before being turned back out of the in-goal area. The other footage showed his body very clearly over the line before he was turned back. Therefore IMHO the try should have been awarded. However, it won't appear in any of the record books so no try, move on.

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